Computer technology plays a critical role in US society and gives computer scientists and engineers unparalleled power and influence. Yet, since the mid-1980’s, women’s participation in computing began declining drastically, a trend that continues today. Anthropology can help us understand how US cultural values govern gender roles and influence women’s interest and inclusion in computing. Hear how women in computing negotiate and resist gender norms and what cultural innovations are needed to create a diverse group of computer scientists and engineers who address the most pressing challenges of our society. Excerpts from the video Miss Representation will be viewed and discussed.

TITLE: A Brave New World: The Scientific, Economic and Social Impact of Computer Science

Computer science and computing are transforming all aspects of the modern world. In this lecture, we will take a short tour of the intellectual underpinnings, societal implications, and grand challenges in computer science and related fields for (And nowadays, everything is a related field…)

Lecture/Abstract Description: Our society is generating data at an unprecedented scale and rate. The ability to manage this "Big Data" holds the promise to deliver novel services and accelerate scientific discovery. We will discuss some of the opportunities raised by Big Data and also some of the challenges associated with managing it, including exciting recent research from the computer science database group at the University of Washington.